Wendy Shalit, in A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue, says, “Modesty answers not the crude how of femininity, but the beautiful why.” Exploring sensitive issues like modesty and femininity can be as complex as intriguing. But for someone as Gogi Saroj Pal, who considers art as her religion, adding a touch of reality to feminism with the stroke of a brush is just a way of life.

Described as the first feminist woman painter of modern Indian art, Pal has consistently explored the condition and life of women through her paintings. Taking up issues of gender prejudice in her inimitable style, she flawlessly breathes life into her figures using painting brushes and a rich palette. And if her oeuvre spanning five-and-a-half decades is exhibited under one roof, it can’t get better for lovers of feminist art.
The Delhi Art Gallery will inaugurate a retrospective of the works of Pal ranging from the 1960s to the present from September 12 to October 15 at 11, Hauz Khas Village. The month-long exhibition will be accompanied by a book with six academic essays, Gogi Saroj Pal: The Feminine Unbound, featuring her works and tracing her journey as an artist. A film of the same name will also be screened during the exhibition.
Apart from showcasing Pal’s work from her earliest Being a Woman and Relationship series, the exhibition will also feature paintings from her other series, like All These Flowers Are For You, where she painted female figures on printed fabric; Young Monks, which is inspired by the solitary life of monks and Aag ka Dariya, where Ms Pal responds scathingly to the rampant practice of female foeticide.
In her paintings, Pal explores a vast reserve of India’s myths, fables and folkore. But she was not content with Ganesha, Durga, Mahishasurmardini and the like. She was among the first to recover significant mythical figures and forms, prominently the kinnari (female version of the centaur), kamdhenu (half-woman, half-cow), Hathyogini Kali and Hathyogini Shakti.
Another subject that fascinates Pal is the nayika bhed or heroine. Her nayikas are shamelessly nude, rejoicing in their nakedness and sexuality, and revelling in the full sensuality of their curvaceous bodies. Some of her nayikas are hybrids: bird-woman, cow-woman, horse-woman, while others are fully human nudes — unclothed, sensual and immodest.
Many artists like M.F. Hussain faced sharp criticism for portraying Hindu goddesses in the nude, so does she face the same flak for depicting the nudity of Indian women? “Hussain’s genre was completely different from mine. His paintings dealt with the nudity of goddesses. In my paintings the issue is not nudity at all; it’s the woman. I want to understand the woman and her reality. My paintings deal with contemporary social issues, hence they can’t be compared with Hussain’s works,’ she argues.
Given her passion to express the reality of woman, it will, however, be wrong to assume that Pal advocates feminism. “I don’t believe in any ‘ism’,” she says. “The basic premise of my art is that a woman’s reality is different from the society’s and I try to present that reality. A society has set norms and a woman is expected to play a stereotypical role. Art is all about expression. That is where the contradiction comes in. As a woman the society expects you to be a conformist, but as an artist, you aspire to be different,” she explains.
Pal works on many media — graphic printmaking, ceramics, studio pottery, jewellery and textiles. “My subject determines the medium. Sometimes, where I am placed also dictates it. If I am unwell, for inst-ance, I will paint small paper works. I am comfortable working with different media, but if I don’t work in a particular medium for a while, I have to relearn my relationship with it. I have to break earlier formulas to evolve every time,” she explains.
In The Feminine Unbound, cultural historian Elinor W. Gadon says Pal’s depiction of the sensuous female is utterly original, with no counterpart in western feminist art. As she paints, Pal excavates the core of Indianness. “The reality of my subject is based on where I am placed. Since I live in India, I love to explore and understand the reality of the Indian woman, which varies too. The reality of the Indian rural woman, for example, is different from the reality of the urban woman,” she says.
Mary-Ann, in The Feminine Unbound, says that Pal has pursued her art undeterred by restrictions and criticism to expose and also to celebrate what it means to be a woman.
Born in 1945, Pal’s biggest inspiration has been to express herself. “Since I was a child I needed my own space to express my creativity. Painting provides me this space,” she adds.